WSU Student, Special Olympics Volunteer Named Newman Civic Fellow

May 26, 2017

OGDEN, Utah — Weber State University junior and Newman Civic Fellow Jeshua Van Sickle’s thoughts are currently focused on Utah’s Special Olympics Summer Games, which will take place June 2-3, but in the back of his mind, he’s looking to the future.

“I tend to think ahead, and I know that after I graduate, my vacations will always be centered around where the Special Olympics World Games are being held,” said Van Sickle, who attended his first Winter World Games in Graz, Austria, in March 2017, as a presenter and spectator.

“You know how you get goosebumps when you watch the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics on television? The Special Olympics ceremonies feel so similar, but are even a bit more emotional. They’re beautifully presented.”

Van Sickle has been an intern/volunteer with Special Olympics since his freshman year in college and has been immersed in almost every aspect of the organization — from coaching to event planning to business management. He helped the Utah chapter write a successful grant to Special Olympics International to create more opportunities for Special Olympics athletes to interact with students in local schools. At their core, the programs highlighted in the grant would unify people with and without intellectual disabilities.

In October 2016, Van Sickle received an invitation to present the grant to an international Special Olympics committee during the Austria games.

“I was working on campus when I opened an email that said, ‘Your grant proposal was impressive. We’re excited to announce that we’ll be reviewing it with you in person in Austria,’” he recalled. “And I just broke into tears.”

Van Sickle said the World Winter Games were everything he imagined them to be — and more. Today, he proudly sports a necklace with a carved, wooden Special Olympics logo. “Team Romania gave this to me,” he said. “I never take it off.”

Newman Honor

Upon his return from Austria, Van Sickle received even more good news — that he had been named a Newman Civic Fellow for his dedicated service to Special Olympics.

The Newman Civic Fellow Awards honor extraordinary college students who demonstrate a commitment to solving problems in communities across the country. Fellows are nominated by college and university presidents who are members of Campus Compact, a national organization committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. 

“I had just been to Austria, and it was incredible,” Van Sickle said. “And then when I got back, to have Mike Moon [assistant director of WSU’s Center for Community Engaged Learning] call and say I had been named a Newman Civic Fellow, just left me speechless.”

WSU President Charles A. Wight describes Van Sickle as a compassionate leader.

“He lives by the outlook of valuing human life, and does all he can to help everyone see the value each individual brings,” Wight said. “Jeshua is a talented student who is utilizing his skills and passion in a positive manner, though he will readily tell you he is the one benefiting the most from his relationships.

From Ogden, Iowa, to Ogden, Utah

Van Sickle grew up in Ogden, Iowa, and went to Iowa State University his freshman year. Told he could complete an internship that would count toward an associates degree, Van Sickle began to search for the right fit. “I didn’t want just any old internship,” he said. “I wanted one that meant something to me.”

He found it at Special Olympics Iowa.

“My first day on the job, one of the directors was let go,” Van Sickle recalled. “I instantly began to help the others in the office who were struggling, now being short staffed, to get the summer games off the ground. I was trying to do as much dirty work as I could. When people think of Special Olympics, they associate volunteers as those who coach the athletes, but there is a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work that requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Van Sickle worked so much that his unpaid internship, which required a certain number of hours, was complete in two weeks. So he went back to school and asked to do another.

“They said yes, so I began my second internship with Special Olympics Iowa,” he said. “This internship was more business focused, so I worked with different aspects of the organization — event planning and the paperwork side of things — and before I knew it, my second internship was over. This time, I didn’t tell anyone. I just kept working and pretended I was an intern for the rest of the summer because I didn’t want to leave.”

In 2015, Van Sickle transferred to Weber State.

“I wanted to try something new, something different,” he said. “I grew up in a family with eight siblings, and we were pretty well known in our town. I wanted to go somewhere where I could trek things out on my own, where I could find me for me.”

Within a week of his first semester at WSU, Van Sickle met a member of the university’s Community Engaged Leaders Service Team.

“I asked if they worked at all with Special Olympics and was told that a position had just opened to chair Weber State’s Special Olympics committee,” he said. “I applied and got the job. I got to coach athletes and be the volunteer coordinator, which was incredible. It was fun to use my experiences from Special Olympics Iowa, where I was more behind the scenes, and to see the other side, from a coaching perspective.”

Today, Van Sickle is an ambassador for Weber State and helps recruit students to the university. It keeps him busy, but he maintains his relationship with Special Olympics Utah. Most recently, he helped plan a training seminar at WSU Davis for Special Olympics’ Global Messengers program.

Global Messengers teaches Special Olympics athletes to develop public speaking skills, with the help of speech clubs at local high schools and universities.  The program is an integral piece of the grant Van Sickle helped write.

“It’s so amazing to watch our Special Olympics athletes learn about public speaking,” he said. “Who better to tell the story of Special Olympics than those who participate in it? This program has produced public speakers who now travel the world telling their stories.

“What we hope to do by getting the Global Messengers program into more Utah schools is to build relationships and grow the unified movement. For example, if we can have inclusion in our speech clubs, why can’t rugby clubs host unified practices once a month or art clubs host unified studios once a month? The possibilities for inclusion are endless.”

Once a Volunteer, Always a Volunteer

As a forward-thinker, Van Sickle is continually making plans for his future. An athletic therapy major, he anticipates working in the global health field.

“I want to make a difference, but I also want to surround myself with others who make a difference, and I know I want to do that in the United States and beyond,” Van Sickle said.

Wherever he goes, he will always be involved with Special Olympics.

“It will always be on my table,” Van Sickle said. “It will never get removed. There’s a saying that Special Olympics coaches don’t realize they’re the ones being coached. And that’s so true. You get so much benefit and don’t even know it. But when you do realize it, you think, ‘Wow, why isn’t everyone doing this, and why haven’t I been doing this my whole life?’”

For more photos, visit the following links:

wsuucomm.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/May-2017/i-dKmT8Mt/A
wsuucomm.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/May-2017/i-sN5ZhmQ/A
wsuucomm.smugmug.com/Press-Release-Photos/2017-photos/May-2017/i-n5P4xVt/A

Author:

Amy Hendricks, Office of Marketing & Communications
801-626-6346 • amyhendricks@weber.edu

Contact:

Melissa Hall, Center for Community Engaged Learning executive director
801-626-7737 • melissahall4@weber.edu

Jeshua Van Sickle, WSU student, Newman Fellow
515-230-3704 • jeshuav@outlook.com